Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word. Today, Pastor Paul closes Matthew chapter 16. Now, the apostle Paul, Matthew, and pretty much all of the others tried to warn Christians regarding false teachers. Spiritual corruption continues to this very day. So today, as you go through this episode, be interactive. Don’t just listen.

Pull out your Bible, look things up, allow the truth to permeate your heart. Not just go in one ear and out the other. Matthew 16, part 2. Beware of the leaven. Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, Jesus warned his disciples in chapter 16 at verse 6.

As I mentioned last time, the Pharisees and Sadducees were the two influential denominations of Judaism in Jesus’ day. It’s more than a little bit interesting to me that the Pharisees’ version of Judaism added traditions and laws to the faith, while the Sadducees did just the opposite. They ignored most of the Old Testament, even denying the reality of the supernatural. Let that sink in. That’s no different than today, is it? We have denominations claiming to be Christian who add to the Bible their own traditions or prophets’ writings or make up additional stuff their members must believe.

In other denominations that deny the inspiration and authority of any parts of the Scripture they don’t like. When Jesus said, Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, he later had to explain to his disciples he was talking about the confusing influence of their teachings. Verse 12 makes that very clear. The disciples understood that he did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Like leaven, that is yeast, permeates a lump of dough and changes it into something else.

False teachers’ wrong ideas, when introduced into sound biblical teaching, will permeate it and change Christianity into something else entirely. So, I could not move on past Matthew 16 without doing my best to clarify one big way that has happened. Last time, we talked about the unbiblical claim that Peter was designated by Jesus somehow to be the first pope of his coming church. That notion, and all of its ramifications, has certainly permeated a big chunk of professing Christianity and changed it into a religion that’s something very other than biblical Christianity. And one teaching that’s central to the Roman Catholic religion that they derive from verse 19 in this chapter: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. What did Jesus mean by that?

That’s what we’re going to think through today. I’m sure some listeners of Share the Word, maybe former listeners by now because they have turned me off, think that it’s just wrong to attack other belief systems, especially any professing Christians. Can’t you just keep it positive, Paul? I get that sentiment. I really do. It reminds me, though, of the opening lines of the Epistle of Jude where he wrote, I intended to write about salvation and all the wonderful things that that entails, but I feel the necessity to write appealing to you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to God’s holy people, because false teachers and their dangerous ideas had been creeping into the early Christian movement, corrupting true doctrine.

Then he goes on to, in the strongest kind of language in that short letter, expose the kind of leaven, that is false teaching, he was concerned about. I met this past weekend with four of my lifelong Christian friends for a few days. We met in the D.C. area, spent a day at the Museum of the Bible. We also played cards, watched football, and just reminisced a lot. But the main reason I look forward to these semi-annual reunions is because we have serious discussions about spiritual issues that matter. I appreciate their input.

In one discussion like that this time, one of them asked me about the podcast. I told them that the one thing I realized more clearly now than ever, as I’ve gone through the New Testament carefully over the last two years, is just how often the early Christian leaders, Jesus and the authors of the New Testament, warned against the dangers of false teachers and the wrong ideas, just as he does here in Matthew 16. Jesus is warning his disciples against those in his day who did not adhere to Scripture, or who else added sayings to Scripture, new practices. And how many of Paul’s diatribes have we come across in his epistles aimed at the Judaizers or the Gnostic heretics who infiltrated the young churches, trying to alter or add to the truths he had taught them.

And in John’s and Peter’s and yes, Jude’s writings, we kept seeing the same thing: early Christian leaders trying to protect those they had influence over. Any honest read of the New Testament underscores and underscores this major theme over and over: beware of the leaven. One news site I follow is called The Christian Post. It’s a site that posts all kinds of stories that Christians might find interesting. A story that caught my eye this past week contained a video clip of a Southern Baptist leader lamenting how many of that denomination’s churches have been closing in recent years. There were lots of points of view in the comments conjecturing as to why that’s happening.

One guy said something to the effect, Well, our church just keeps everything positive and does not offend people, and we have actually been growing. Man, Jesus should have thought of that. He might have lived longer. John the Baptist too. Peter and Paul and the others weren’t that smart either. Things would have been easier for them if they would have only taken that approach.

Hope you detect my sarcasm. That was definitely not the mindset of the early Christian leaders. They spoke and wrote and stood for the truth as they understood it, even when it was offensive to some, even when it became dangerous for them, because they knew it was critically important to be clear, crystal clear, about Christianity’s fundamental teachings and clear about false teaching that spiritually confused people. So they contended earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to God’s holy people. Contend. I wanted to be sure I even understood that word correctly, so I checked epeagonizomai, that Greek verb’s meaning in my trusty Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament, and the meaning is unmistakable.

It has only one meaning. It means to fight, to defend. When the apostles learned about false teachers, they vigorously called them out. And when they became aware of their wrong ideas taking root in Christian congregations, they did their best to expose those wrong ideas and root them out. They understood from Jesus’ example, warnings, and instructions that it was part of their job to contend for the faith. It’s in that spirit that we do the same on Share the Word, not because I particularly enjoy it, and I don’t aim it at other Bible believers with whom we have some interpretational difference, but with those who do not take the Scripture as the final word, and those who have built religions or personal followings by twisting it, ignoring it, or adding their own ideas to it.

Back to Matthew 16, our text. I’m going to quote to you a young Roman Catholic priest who has become something of a spokesman for that religion online. When I see him come across my Facebook feed, I always click the link and listen carefully. He’s easy to spot because he’s always wearing a brightly colored vestment. In this particular reel I’m going to quote, he was in bright purple and gold. I’m quoting him now word for word.

This is a cutting from his homily. He said, Protestants do not have the priesthood, which means they do not have the divine presence of the Eucharist in their churches. Their churches are not the dwelling place of God. They do not have the confession sacrament. They do not have, then, the forgiveness of their sins through that sacrament. All they have every single Sunday, he said, is a Bible study.

Beware of the leaven. I disagree with every contention the man made, precisely because of a lot of Bible study. But let’s focus on priesthood, since Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:17 about binding and loosing is the principal verse the Roman Catholic Church appeals to for their sacrament of penance, that is, the necessary confession to one of their priests. In order to have your sins forgiven, the New Testament is clear that we do need a priest to intercede with us to God to be forgiven. But it’s equally clear that the only priest qualified to do that is Jesus Christ. Here’s what the New Testament says on that subject.

I’m quoting now from Hebrews chapter 4. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus is every believer’s great high priest.

Whenever we approach God for grace and forgiveness, He’s there for us. First John chapter 2 also says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. Or again, First Timothy chapter 2, verses 5 and 6. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for us all. Pretty clear, no?

Jesus Christ is our priest, our advocate, our one mediator with God. That’s what the New Testament says. Actually, nowhere in the New Testament is the term priest ever used for a church officer or leader. The reason? Priests, by definition, are someone who stands between you and God, someone whose office you need in order to reach God. That is now Jesus’ role and only his role.

It’s true that priesthood was a part of the Old Testament religion. Priests served in the tabernacle, later in the temple, to offer up sacrifices to God for people’s sins. But that’s why we call it the Old Testament. The New Testament is very clear that through Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice, the Old Testament system of sacrifices and priests became obsolete. There’s an entire book in the New Testament written to religious Jews to explain that. Here’s another section from it.

I’m talking about Hebrews, and this is from chapter 9. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, that is the New Testament, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, as priests did in the Old Testament times, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. He has appeared once for all at the end of this age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. In the New Testament, as we’ve seen, in the places church leadership is addressed, the leaders are called pastors or elders or overseers, but never once priests. We don’t need priests anymore. Yet the Roman Catholic Church insists we must have their priest to intercede with God for us.

As the one I quoted said, without the intercession of priests and the sacrament of confession, we cannot have the forgiveness of sins. I want to be very clear about this. So again, I’m quoting from a Roman Catholic diocese website called AD Today. Look it up if you’d like. Listen carefully. We need priests not only in emergencies, but throughout our lives.

Priests baptize us as babies, washing us of original sin, rescuing us from Satan’s dominion. As we get older, we need a priest to hear us confess our sins. It is a priest who gives us Holy Communion. If we marry, we need a priest to witness our vows. As we get older or become ill, we need the priest to administer the anointing of the sick and comfort us with words of eternal life. When we die, we need a priest to celebrate Mass for us and give us a Christian burial.

Even after we are dead, we depend on priests to offer Masses for our souls and comfort our loved ones who have been left behind. Saint John Vianney put it well: Without the sacrament of Holy Orders, that is, the priesthood, we should not have the Lord. Without the priest, the Passion and death of our Lord be of no avail. What use would be a house filled with gold were there no one to open its doors? That’s a reference here to Jesus’ statement about the keys. Wow.

Without priests, we would not have the Lord. Priests wash away our baby’s original sin. Only priests can unlock all the spiritual doors for us throughout our lives, and even after we are dead. Wow. These are astonishingly anti-biblical sentiments. We don’t need priests for any of those things.

There is no such thing as an exalted priesthood standing between us and God, since Jesus completed his atoning work on the cross. He alone has become our great High Priest, the one mediator between us and God. We’re connected to God through faith in Him, and if we mess up as Christians, He is our advocate. We confess our sins, and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, we can trust the New Testament on this big question, or we can trust a religion that evolved over the centuries which completely contradicts it. That’s as clear as I can make it.

If you’ve been taught Roman Catholic dogma, I hope you will ask yourself why exactly a religion calling itself Christian would contradict the New Testament so obviously on such a key point. Could it be that it is designed to keep people believing they are dependent on them to dole out God’s grace? That they are our lifeline to God to persuade us that they are our only hope of having our sins forgiven and gaining eternal life? Man, beware of the leaven. So, Paul, how do you and other evangelicals understand Jesus when he said here in Matthew 16, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Peter was given special privileges by Jesus: keys, open things.

On the day the promised church was born, a Sunday 50 days after Jesus’ death and resurrection, we read about this in Acts chapter 2, it was Peter who spoke out boldly to the Jews who had come to Jerusalem from all over for the Feast of Pentecost. He publicly preached right near the temple that the nation’s leaders had crucified the Messiah, but that it was all according to God’s predetermined plan, which was proven by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Then he said, Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him, Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus you crucified. When his listeners heard this, Luke writes, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what should we do now?

Peter answered, Repent, and each of you be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about three thousand souls. On that special day, Peter’s sermon unlocked the door of salvation to that Jewish audience, and three thousand new believers were added to the existing community of Christians in Judea. Then, not long after that, we read about this in Acts chapter 8, a young deacon of Jerusalem’s Christian community named Philip decided to preach the good news of the gospel in Samaria, of all places. Samaria, the place of the unclean people, right? But a lot of Samaritans responded to Philip’s message of the gospel and were publicly baptized to testify to that.

When word of such a thing reached Jerusalem, Peter and John were dispatched to see what was going on there. And it wasn’t until they arrived and laid hands on those new Samaritan believers that they received the Holy Spirit. And so once again, Peter was instrumental when Samaritans, officially, we’d say, became part of the growing Christian church God was building. And then again, in Acts chapter 10, there’s that pivotal account of how Peter was once again present—this was no coincidence—to first share the good news with Gentiles at the home of the Roman officer Cornelius in Caesarea. Gentiles. And although reluctant to go when he did, when he shared the gospel of Christ with those Gentiles in that household, they all got saved and received the Holy Spirit and again were baptized.

It was Peter who again unlocked the door of faith now to another big group of people for whom Christ died, Gentiles, people like most of us. This, I feel, is sure what Jesus was promising to Peter about the keys. Peter was given the keys to open the door of faith to the Jews first, then to the Samaritans, then to the whole Gentile world, just as Jesus had said in the Great Commission should be done. And that was a great privilege. To leave no loose ends, let me comment on one more thing. The binding and loosing specifically referred to here, remember?

Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Jesus said that. It’s important to hear the tense of his words, though, the tense of those verbs, shall have been. That means something that’s already been done, and done by someone else. Neither Peter nor the other disciples, and certainly no Christians today, have any personal power to bind people in their sins or loose people from their sins.

When a church claims their priests have that kind of power over you, wow, that’s about control. What Jesus meant was Peter and the rest of us too have the authority to declare God’s truth about people based on their responses to his word. We can say to someone who repents of sin and believes into Jesus, Your sins have been forgiven. You’re freed from their consequences because Christ has paid for them, and you are now in Christ. We can declare to new believers because that is what God has promised us. Peter said on occasions also, when it called for it, that someone who did not believe was bound in their sins, like Simon Magus in Samaria in Acts chapter 8.

And on other occasions, he said, when people did believe, that they were freed from their sins, as he announced on the day of Pentecost. But the authority is in God’s Word and God’s promises, not in the man Peter. The same is true for us. It’s like when I baptize a new believer, I declare, based on their testimony of faith in Christ, that their sins have been washed away, that they are new creations in God’s eyes. I can announce that because God promises that, not because of any power in me. No priest and no church has the power to forgive or retain anyone’s sins.

Never once do we see anyone coming to anyone called a priest in the New Testament to confess and have their sins forgiven. Never once do we see any church leader even called a priest in the New Testament. That practice did not begin to show up in church history for hundreds of years and was not even approved as a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church until the 13th century, more than 1,200 years after Matthew wrote these verses. So I can assure you, with no doubt about this, that is just not how the apostles understood Jesus that day. So the man in purple and the religion he speaks for, which claims to have all kinds of ultimate spiritual authority, are sadly false teachers. Please beware of the leaven.

The only sure antidote to false teaching is learning the truths of God’s Word, and that’s the only reason Share the Word exists: to encourage you and assist you in doing that, learning the truths in God’s Word as we go chapter by chapter through it. Thanks for listening. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul. So as you went through this episode, did you participate? Did you look up Scripture?

Did you notice the similarities between what early Christians went through with their religious leaders and what we’re dealing with today? Someone said to me, What makes your truth right? My truth? No, it’s God’s truth. It’s the truth that comes from the Bible, which is divinely inspired by God, profitable for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness, equipping believers for every good work. I challenge you to really go deeper to understand who Jesus is to you.

If you think that you need anyone except Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you need to do more study. Don’t just take our word for it. It’s right there in the Bible.